Fans have been anticipating the series since it was first announced to be in the works in 2020, before finally being ordered to series five years later.

Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels, which were inspired by the author’s own youth, Netflix’s show is the latest in a long line of small-screen adaptations of Little House On The Prairie, which details the lives of pioneer families in the American Midwest in the late 19th century.

If you have already settled down to watch the latest take on the stories and wondered where you recognise the key cast members from, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s our quick guide to everywhere you’ve seen the stars of Netflix’s Little House On The Prairie before…

Playing iconic literary character Laura Ingalls is Alice Halsey’s biggest role to date.

The 14-year-old made her screen debut in the Apple+ miniseries Lessons In Chemistry, in which she played the on-screen daughter of Brie Larson’s character, Madeline.

She also appeared in one episode of the recent reboot of Night Court with Melissa Rauch, before a year-long run in the American soap opera Days Of Our Lives.

Alice’s next project will be in the thriller film Ally Clark, which stars Viola Davis and Jason Clarke.

Like many Australian stars before him, Luke Bracey’s big break came when he landed the part of high school bad boy Trey Palmer in Home And Away.

After that, his first big-screen performance was in the 2010 Selena Gomez rom-com Monte Carlo, which he followed by replacing Joseph Gordon Levitt as Cobra Commander in the blockbuster sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

He also appeared in the 2015 Point Break remake, the Oscar-nominated war drama Hacksaw Ridge and in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, as the talent manager Jerry Schilling.

On TV, his roles have included Little Fires Everywhere and last year’s The Artful Dodger.

Crosby Fitzgerald is best known for playing Sylvia in the Apple TV+ comedy drama series Palm Royale, and Halle Berry’s younger colleague, Madeline, in Crime 101.

Before her star-making turn, Crosby appeared in small roles in numerous TV comedies, including Abbott Elementary and Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens.

She also played Madison, a friend of the titular character’s stepfather, in the 2025 true crime drama The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox.

Skywalker is still in her teens, but already has some impressive Hollywood credentials under her belt.

Before being cast in Little House On The Prairie, she starred alongside Hilary Swank in the film Ordinary Angels and Kate McKinnon in In The Blink Of An Eye

Her TV work has included the Western drama Joe Pickett and 2024’s Blue’s Clues & You!.

Skywalker will also soon appear in the family film, I, Object alongside Ethan Hawke and Karl Urban.

Jocko Sims started his career in 2004 with a one-off appearance in Cold Case, playing a leader of the Black Liberation Front organisation in Philadelphia.

He later had small roles in NYPD Blue, Grey’s Anatomy and NCIS, and has since become best known for playing Anthony Adams in the 2008 TV adaptation of Crash.

More recently, he has had recurring roles in the Michael Sheen drama Masters Of Sex, the action series The Last Ship and the medical show New Amsterdam.

As for Jocko’s film career, his credits include the Jake Gyllenhaal war film Jarhead, the musical Dreamgirls and the post-apocalyptic sequel Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.

You may recognise Warren Christie for his performances as construction mogul Ray Cataldo in October Road, firefighter Scott Rice in Chicago Fire or Bruce’s childhood friend Tommy Elliot in Batwoman.

Over the course of his two-decade career, Warren has also had minor roles in The L Word, Battlestar Galactica and Happy Town.

Meanwhile, if your guilty pleasure is a Hallmark movie, you may well know Warren from his many appearances in the network’s original films, including 2020′s If I Only Had Christmas, 2021′s Crashing Through the Snow and 2024′s Our Holiday Story.

Alyssa Wapanatâhk is probably most well-known for having played Tiger Lily in Disney’s 2023 live-action film Peter Pan & Wendy, which co-starred Jude Law as Captain Hook.

Last year, she also appeared in Cottonmouth, a Western starring Ron Perlman and Esai Morales.

Her biggest TV role, meanwhile, was appearing in the seventh season of Riverdale as Lizzo, a Southside Serpent in 1955.

Barrett Doss is most recognisable for her role as Victoria Hughes in both Grey’s Anatomy and its spin-off series Station 19.

Her other small-screen credits include playing a young Liz Lemon’s great-granddaughter in the 30 Rock finale, Megan, the personal assistant at Rand Enterprises in Iron Fist, and the recent Netflix rom-com The Noel Diary.

If you regularly watch comedy, you will have likely seen Mary Holland in action, with some of her on-screen credits including Silicon Valley, Parks And Recreation and The Good Place.

Mary’s biggest role to date came when she was cast as Tanya Logan in the Rose Byrne dramedy Physical, followed by leading parts as Sloane in the Netflix comedy The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window and as Nat in Apple’s sci-fi dramedy The Big Door Prize.

More recently, Mary played Puritan Patience in the American remake of the BBC sitcom Ghosts.

Since making his screen debut in 2011, Michael Hough is now probably best known for playing a sawmill employee in the Stephen King adaptation Chapelwaite.

He has also played an Orion pirate in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and, more recently, appeared as Tom Quigley in the Irish black comedy Obituary.

Still just 12 years old, Little House On The Prairie marks the start of a promising career for young actor Wren Zhawnim Gotts.

Before the Netflix period drama came calling, she was best known for playing Young Bonnie in the MCU miniseries Echo.

Little House On The Prairie is now streaming on Netflix.

I have the internet to thank for many of my hobbies, including crocheting and baking. I’ve even fixed minor household issues with the help of some handy YouTube clips, and probably wouldn’t have built the skincare routine I swear by without some input from online forums like Reddit.

But when it comes to short-term videos – the ones we scroll through endlessly on social media sites – learning from educational content might be an illusion, a new paper has found.

The study, published in Communications Psychology, found that while the clips grab our attention and keep us engaged, they might impair our ability to actually remember what we’ve learned.

The study authors conducted three studies comparing short-form educational videos with more conventional teaching methods.

They took ten-minute documentary footage and chopped it down into multiple social-media-style short-form videos. Though these were far shorter, they contained all the same information as the longer footage.

In the first study, researchers didn’t tell 180 students they were being tested. They showed short clips to some and the uninterrupted documentary footage to others, then surprised both groups with a quiz on the videos both right after they’d watched them and a day later.

People who consumed the shorter-form content performed worse on the immediate quiz.

Then, they told a group of 185 students to pay attention to the videos they were watching because they were about to be quizzed. Those who watched the short-form version of the footage fared worse on the immediate test and scored lower again the day after.

The researchers also put 59 new participants into an MRI scanner and watched their brains as they consumed either documentary or short-form video footage.

Those who watched the longer-form content saw better synchronisation of the superior parietal lobulem, a part of the brain responsible for attention and integrating sensory and visual inputs. This was also true of the precuneus, which orchestrates things like self-awareness, episodic memory, and making sense of visual events.

Basically, it looked like the documentary watchers’ brains were building mental “maps” of the information.

The brains of the participants who watched the short-form content, though, only synchronised the regions that deal with in-the-moment attention and short-term focus. They were more alert, but that alertness might have actually worked against their memory formation rather than assisting it.

Lastly, the researchers measured functional connectivity, or how well different regions of participants’ brains communicated with one another, when watching different content.

To form a memory that sticks, the parts of our minds that handle visual and auditory input have to “talk to” the sections responsible for executive control and decision-making.

But this research showed that short-form content seemed to break that communication. Essentially, their minds seemed so busy processing the stimuli placed in the more action-packed format that they didn’t have as much capacity to bundle it away into a lasting memory, too.

The paper said this could mean “the fragmented and rapidly switching nature of typical social media short videos enhances bottom-up attentional capture at the expense of top-down cognitive processes critical for deep learning and long-term memory consolidation”.

In other words, though you might be taking in more in the short term, you could be learning less in the long run.

It’s a very exciting time to be a Madonna fan.

Not only has the Queen of Pop’s latest release Confessions II got some of the most glowing reviews in her 40-year career, she’s just topped the UK albums chart for the first time since 2012.

What’s more, Confessions II cut Danceteria has also become her first solo top 40 single on this side of the Atlantic, proving people are still up for hearing from the trail-blazing star even four decades into her career.

Hype around Danceteria was strong even before its release, after it was prominently featured in Madonna’s Confessions II short film, in a star-studded sequence featuring a host of A-list cameos.

Danceteria itself also namechecks a host of key figures from Madonna’s past, who she used to rub shoulders with at the titular nightclub before shooting to fame in the early 80s. Some of them were friends of hers from back in the day, some went on to achieve huge success in their art form, and some are even still in Madonna’s life all these years later.

With Danceteria quickly becoming one of Madonna’s most talked-about songs in years, we’re running through some of its lyrics with a quick guide to everyone who gets a mention in the song…

A visual artist who was a pivotal part of the downtown art scene in 80s New York, Martin Burgoyne befriended a young Madonna at Danceteria and later became her roommate.

The two worked together numerous times in the early years of her career, and after years of friendship, he eventually became one of the first people in her life to die from AIDS-related causes.

During the final stages of his life, Madonna paid for Martin’s medical bills, as well as an apartment for him that meant he could be nearer St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he received his treatment.

She later paid tribute to him on her Erotica album track In This Life, and in 2023, when Madonna turned her song Live To Tell into a memorial to those who died in the AIDS crisis, Martin’s face was the first projected onto the stage.

“He was really cute: blond curly hair, earrings up his ears, plaid golf shorts, Doc Martens, black frames, and a white t-shirt with a sweater vest over it,” Madonna told Interview magazine earlier this year, while recalling their first meeting.

“He’s like, ‘You look lost’. And I was. He said, ‘Come with me. I’ll get you in’. And he just crashed to the front of the line.”

She added: “Everybody knew him. He said hi to everybody. The doorman opened the velvet rope. He brought me in and my whole life changed.”

Haoui Montaug ran the door at several iconic New York clubs, including the Tunnel, Studio 54 and, of course, Danceteria.

At Danceteria, he was also in charge of the club night No Entiendes, where Madonna performed her debut single Everybody back in 1983 (he can be seen introducing her at the beginning of the video below).

In the early 90s, after being diagnosed with AIDS, Haoui held what became known as a “suicide party” to say goodbye to his loved ones (including Madonna, who is reported to have attended over the phone) before taking his own life the following morning.

Debi Mazar is an actor, TV personality and life-long friend of Madonna’s, having previously appeared in the music videos for hits like Papa Don’t Preach, True Blue and Music.

The two also met at Danceteria, where Debi used to work on the lift (as mentioned by Madonna in her lyrics).

As the singer put it to Interview magazine: “[Debi] was 16 when she was working there and lying about her age. She was going to the Wilfred Academy of Hair & Beauty Culture and we hit it off right away.

“She used to put the elevator on hold, like press the emergency button, and come out and dance with me.”

Madonna added: “She had the most incredible looks all the time. Her face was beat. Her hair was done. I kept going, ‘Damn, girl, how do you look so good? I have three pieces of clothing and I don’t even know how to do my makeup’.”

Debi also described Madonna as her best friend during an interview with Watch What Happens Live in the early 2010s.

Since her Danceteria days, Debi’s screen credits have included everything from the films Goodfellas, Empire Records and Malcolm X to the popular TV series L.A. Law, Entourage, Ugly Betty and Younger, plus lending her voice to Maria Latore in the Grand Theft Auto games.

Notably, she’s also the only person name-checked in Danceteria to also appear in its accompanying visual.

As you can probably guess, Mark Kamins was one of the DJs at Danceteria at its heyday, who helped Madonna out majorly by playing a demo of her song Everybody, which eventually became her debut single, during a night out.

In Interview last month, Madonna claimed she specifically used to go to Danceteria in an attempt to “butter up” the DJ, with whom she’d briefly go on to work in the first years of her pre-fame career.

As she put it: “He saw me as a complete stalker. Someone would say, ‘There’s Mark Kamins’, and I’d go sit next to him and say, ‘Hey, I know you’re the DJ here and I’ve been working on this music and I’d love to get a chance to play it for you if it’s possible’.

“He was cute and I was turning on the charm as much as I could, and he’d be like, ‘Do you know how many people bother me about wanting to play me their demos?’. He left, but I kept harassing him. I just kept coming back.”

She continued: “Eventually I ended up in a bathroom with Mark Kamins, and I saw him snorting coke. He’s dead now. I can say that.

“He was a wonderful guy, but he did a lot of things people did in the ’80s that they shouldn’t have done. You know what I’m talking about […] So anyway, I brought him some coke in the bathroom, took him in the stalls, me and Debi […] So anyway, we made out, we did a little blow, and then he agreed to listen to my demo.”

Like many of the people name-checked in Danceteria, Fab 5 Freddy was a burgeoning artist in the era Madonna’s hit is set, at that time mostly dabbling in large-scale graffiti art.

He is now considered a pioneer in the hip-hop scene, and was previously name-checked in Blondie’s Rapture “rap” back in 1981, too, before putting together the film Wild Style and going on to become a VJ for MTV’s flagship hip-hop show.

Jean-Michel Basquiat is among the most influential artists of the 20th century, rising up through the New York graffiti scene before turning his hand more to painting in his own signature style.

He and Madonna dated in 1982, at a time they were both on the cusp of a breakthrough in their professional careers, though the future Queen of Pop said that his continued use of hard drugs was what ultimately led to the end of their relationship.

“He wouldn’t stop doing heroin,” she told Howard Stern decades later, adding: “He was an amazing man and deeply talented. I loved him.”

Madonna claimed that after their split, he made her return two paintings of his that he’d once gifted her, which she later learned he’d destroyed with black paint.

In 1988, he died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27.

Artist and activist Keith Haring’s distinct drawing style is immediately recognisable, and has been referenced in Madonna’s career dating all the way back to her Borderline video in 1984.

His work incorporated heavy themes including issues around race, drug misuse and the AIDS crisis, and is recognisable by its colourful and uniquely-shaped drawings of people and animals.

Keith died as a result of complications from AIDS in 1990. In 2023, he was also among the figures included in Madonna’s tribute to those lost in the AIDS epidemic on her Celebration world tour.

Another artist who came up with Madonna in her Danceteria days was Kenny Scharf, known for his distinctive style that sends up middle-class American iconography, often incorporating cartoon characters from his youth, like the Flintstones and Jetsons.

Still active today, he has turned his hand to various artforms over the years, including sculpture, video and even fashion, and was the subject of the 2020 documentary Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide.

Art dealer Tony Shafrazi opened up his own gallery in the late 1970s, which quickly became a key space in the downtown art scene.

The Tony Shafrazi Gallery and Danceteria were both known as a hub for artists of that era (including many of them named in Madonna’s latest hit), eventually closing in 2014.

In more recent years, Shafrazi has become a more divisive figure in the art world due to his vocal support for Donald Trump.

French fashion designer and stylist Maripol was an important figure in the early years of Madonna’s career, helping put together the image that would make her a global superstar.

Most notably, she styled the future chart-topper on her first two album covers, as well as in the music videos for hits Burning Up and Like A Virgin, as well as her inaugural tour, The Virgin Tour.

Outside of her work with Madonna, she’s also collaborated with musicians like Cher, Grace Jones, Sir Elton John and Blondie’s Deborah Harry.

Alright, you’ve got us there.

Danceteria actually name-checks three different “Freds”, including the aforementioned Fab 5 Freddy and The B-52s’ frontman Fred Schneider, but quite who the mysterious “guy named Fred” is supposed to be is up for debate.

One contender suggested by fans on Reddit is the photographer Fred Seidman, who took Madonna’s pictures for the New York paper The Village Voice years before she made it big.

During Madonna’s time partying at Danceteria, breakdancing was still very much on the come-up, with one of the artform’s most popular troupes being the Rock Steady Crew.

Their leader was Richard Colón, better known to fans as “Crazy Legs”, whose distinct moves made him one of breakdancing’s most influential figures.

The co-founder of Chic was instrumental in some of the band’s biggest hits, including Everybody Dance, I Want Your Love and Le Freak.

While Nile Rodgers and Madonna moved in the same circles at Danceteria, interestingly, they wouldn’t work together until she’d already broken through, and he produced some of the biggest hits from her second album, most notably Material Girl, Like A Virgin and Dress You Up.

Still a huge figure in the pop music sphere, Nile Rodgers has quite literally worked with everyone, from Diana Ross, David Bowie and Duran Duran to Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga. He and Chic are still staples on the festival scene, too.

Most of us will know David Byrne best as the guitarist and lead vocalist of the avant-garde rock group Talking Heads, whose biggest hits include Once In A Lifetime, Burning Down The House and Psycho Killer.

Like Madonna, David Byrne is very much still making music, releasing his most recent album in 2025, in collaboration with Ghost Train Orchestra.

He’s also an Oscar winner thanks to his work on the score of the 1987 film The Last Emperor.

Of course, the B-52s had their breakthrough a few years after Madonna with their seminal floor-filler Love Shack.

Quite why Madonna says they “had money to burn” in their Danceteria days remains to be seen, but at least frontman Fred Schneider appeared to see the funny side of it all.

Saxophonist John Lurie co-founded the band Lounge Lizards in the late 1970s, merging elements of jazz with other popular genres from that time, including punk, new wave and other avant-garde music.

Much like Madonna herself, the Lounge Lizards would often perform at Danceteria as well as frequenting it as patrons.

Although she doesn’t reference him by name, Madonna’s “take a walk on the wild side” here nods to Lou Reed’s similarly-named hit.

To drive her point home, she then launches into the “do do do” section of Take A Walk On The Wild Side, which is why the late Lou Reed is also named as a co-writer on Danceteria.

Lou, of course, is a true icon of the music world, first coming up as a member of The Velvet Underground, before enjoying decades of solo success.

He died in 2013 at the age of 71, and continue to record and tour even in his final years.

So… erm… what exactly is going on with the casting announcements for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing?

Back in June, Strictly bosses surprised fans when they began unveiling stars from the upcoming line-up months earlier than normal, with EastEnders favourite Lacey Turner the first to be confirmed.

In the days that followed, Dani Dyer and Delta Goodrem were also revealed to have signed up, and after a week’s break, hairstylist Chris Appleton became the fourth star announced.

After that, there was nothing for three weeks, until Cach Mercer became the fifth contestant (and second Love Islander…) to be announced.

However, this inconsistency hasn’t stopped rumours from spreading about other celebrities who could be hitting the dance floor in 2026, with a host of stars from the world of TV, sport and beyond tipped to be taking part.

While we wait for more news from the BBC, here’s a quick guide to which celebrities have been rumoured for Strictly 2026 so far…

Way back in March, daytime favourite Josie Gibson was named by The Sun as the “first celeb lined up” for the new season.

Josie first rose to fame as the winner of the final series of Big Brother in the Channel 4 era, and since then, she’s become known for her appearances on This Morning and I’m A Celebrity.

The tabloid’s “source” claimed that bosses had been hoping to get Josie to sign up for years, and that they’re “hoping this year is the year”.

Josie later downplayed the rumours, insisting she’d “had nobody contact me” about an appearance on Strictly, and that the whole thing was an April Fool’s joke.

Dame Sarah Storey is a British sporting legend, with a whopping 19 gold medals from the Paralympic games – in both cycling and swimming – and 75 world records to her name.

In June, The Sun cited a source who said that for her next venture, Dame Sarah had signed up for Strictly and was “really excited to be learning a new skill”.

Before that, she had signed up for what would turn out to be the final season of Dancing On Ice on ITV, but had to withdraw from the series before it began due to injury.

At the beginning of June, The Sun claimed that Jeff Brazier had been approached about taking part in Strictly, three years after his eldest son Bobby Brazier competed on the show, finishing as runner-up in the live final.

Jeff, best known as a TV presenter, previously competed on the celebrity version of Race Across The World with his younger son Freddie, having also taken part in reality shows like The Farm, Celebrity MasterChef and Dancing On Ice.

Following Bobby’s stint, Jeff said he had turned down the chance to appear on Strictly so as not to step on his son’s toes, but the tabloid claims he’s now had a change of heart…

To millions of viewers, Melanie Walters is best known for her work as the loveable Gwen in all three seasons of Gavin & Stacey.

In late June, The Sun reported that Melanie had “signed up for Strictly”, two years on from the show-stopping finale of Gavin & Stacey, which aired on Christmas Day in 2024.

When it was confirmed that Dani Dyer had signed up for Strictly 2026, it was no major surprise, as she’d originally been booked to compete a year earlier, until an injury sustained during training meant she was no longer able to compete.

However, Dani wasn’t the only Strictly star who had to bow out early last year.

Like the Love Island winner, Game Of Thrones star Kristian Nairn also had to withdraw from Strictly 2025 on medical grounds, leading many to wonder if he, too, has been invited back for this year’s run.

Kristian is probably most well-known for his performance as Hodor in Game Of Thrones, but he also appeared more recently in the comedy Our Flag Means Death.

Jake Quickenden is a reality TV veteran at this point, famously finishing in second place in the jungle mere weeks after being voted off The X Factor back in 2014.

Since then, he’s also appeared in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and Dancing On Ice, which he won the year the ITV skating show was revived in 2018.

The Sun has claimed that, since Jake joined the cast of the CBBC series Jamie Johnson FC, Strictly bosses are now considering him to be “in the BBC stables”, therefore “part of the gang” and a suitable candidate for Strictly 2026.

Last year, Tom Parker Bowles was named in the press as a hot favourite for the Strictly Come Dancing line-up, but ultimately wound up not being part of the cast.

Tom is best known for being a food critic and writer – plus, as his name suggests, the son of Queen Camilla and her first husband Andrew Parker-Bowles.

Because he was reported to be at the top of producers’ wishlists in 2025, many outlets are already suggesting that he might make it onto this year’s series instead.

Alright, this is one we’d say should probably be taken with a pinch of salt, but stay with us.

In mid-June, former Strictly Come Dancing finalist Emma Barton was being interviewed by Roman Kemp on The One Show, where she took a moment to reflect on her time on the BBC competition series.

She claimed: “It’s nerve-racking, isn’t it? And it’s scary?”

“Roman, you know, as well…” Emma added, to which Roman quickly interjected: “I have never done it! I’ve never done it.”

However, the faux pas led many to question whether Emma may have let slip something that she shouldn’t have, with Roman having been named in the press as a potential Strictly contestant numerous times in the past.

For now, at least, the BBC is staying tight-lipped on all Strictly Come Dancing casting rumours, ahead of the show’s return to our screens in the autumn.